ENERGY STAR’s First-Ever Specification for Commercial Packaged Boilers Makes Energy-Efficient Heating Easier for Small Commercial Buildings

-

WASHINGTON, DC – (RealEstateRama) — On December 20, 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its first-ever ENERGY STAR specification for commercial packaged boilers. These products incorporate a burner and hot water storage to provide hydronic space heating, and in some cases hot water, in smaller commercial buildings. Expanding into this category is consistent with the ENERGY STAR program’s goal of advancing energy efficiency in a growing number of industries and protecting the environment.

In commercial buildings, space and water heating dominate the gas usage, representing more than 90% of total energy consumption. By making it easy to identify high efficiency commercial packaged boilers, the ENERGY STAR label provides a meaningful opportunity for significant energy and cost savings. These energy-saving products will be most relevant to smaller commercial spaces that may need to make a quick decision, without bringing in an engineer to analyze their system, when their boiler fails. In parallel with finalizing this specification and to facilitate further efficiencies in this category, EPA is developing a system design guide intended for commercial packaged boiler end-users to offer education regarding the opportunities for efficient boiler systems.

Commercial packaged boilers that meet the new ENERGY STAR requirements offer end- users as much as 15% in energy savings and about $1,150 in energy cost savings per year when compared to standard models. If all eligible commercial packaged boilers sold in the United States were ENERGY STAR certified, the energy cost savings would grow to more than $1 billion and 23 billion pounds of annual greenhouse gas emissions would be prevented, equivalent to the emissions of over 2 million vehicles.

To earn the ENERGY STAR label, products must be certified by an EPA-recognized third party, based on testing in an EPA-recognized laboratory. In addition, manufacturers of the products must participate in verification testing programs run by recognized certification bodies.

ENERGY STAR is the simple choice for energy efficiency. For nearly 25 years, people across America have looked to EPA’s ENERGY STAR program for guidance on how to save energy, save money, and protect the environment. Behind each blue label is a product, building, or home that is independently certified to use less energy and cause fewer of the emissions that contribute to climate change. Today, ENERGY STAR is the most widely recognized symbol for energy efficiency in the world. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR has helped families and businesses save $362 billion on utility bills, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2.4 billion metric tons. Join the millions who are already making a difference at energystar.gov.

Source: ENERGY STAR

Previous articleApartment Industry Response to President Trump’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress
Next articleCONSTRUCTION SPENDING SLIPS IN JANUARY AS PUBLIC INVESTMENTS IN INFRASTRUCTURE “TUMBLED” WHILE PRIVATE CONSTRUCTION DEMAND CONTINUES TO GROW SOLIDLY